FNU to move under Strategic Planning Ministry as FNU Amendment Bill passed

The Fiji National University will now move from the Ministry of Education to come under the Ministry of Strategic Planning, National Development and Statistics as the FNU Amendment Bill has been passed this afternoon. 

30 MPs voted for the amendment, 6 against while 19 MPs did not vote. 

While tabling the Bill, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka says the amendment is intended to strengthen the coordination and linkage between Fiji's development priorities and critical sectors across the economy.

He says such sectors include, but are not limited to, health, education, employment and infrastructure, to name a few. 

Rabuka says the amendment to the Bill will strengthen the legal foundation necessary to ensure all relevant government processes are adequately aligned with the evolving strategic mandate of the university and the broader development aspirations of our great nation.

While opposing the move, Opposition MP Jone Usamate says FNU was allocated $80 million in 2021, but by 2025, it had dropped to $55 million, a 30 percent reduction in just four years, while private sector organizations have seen their budgets increase by 600 percent in three years. 

He says he is not opposed to private sector growth, but this sharp decline in support for the national university is concerning.

Usamate says there has also been a strategic shift over the past few years, and this is evident in the way resources and priorities are moving.

Insert Usamate on internal conflict, 13th March 

He further says in January 2025, a whistleblower report raised allegations of bias, discrimination in management decisions, bullying, victimisation of staff, and abuse of authority within university leadership and the council lodged a complaint with FICAC.

Usamate says the Prime Minister has the prerogative in this matter, and he has chosen not to speak with the former chairman, a government appointee.

The Opposition MP has asked if this FICAC investigation will continue.

He asks will the government listen to those appointed by it including the former chairperson of FNU and the former chairperson of the Higher Education Commission of Fiji

Usamate adds globally, national universities already have mechanisms to align with national priorities; for example, the National University of Singapore is governed by its Ministry of Education, and these mechanisms exist here as well.

While also opposing the amendment, Opposition MP Joseph Nand says a slow, systematic weakening of FNU has been happening for the past three years where a national institution that once trained our nurses, our teachers, our engineers, our farmers, is now reduced, sidelined and pushed into the shadows.

The MP says it is facing funding cuts, programmes discontinued, campuses shrinking, staff uncertain and students confused.

Nand claims that while FNU has been weakened, another institution has been rising, rapidly, aggressively and with extraordinary government support.

He says a relatively new institution has received millions in the last three budgets and you don't need to be a detective to see that these two stories are connected.

Nand says until the Parliament receives a full, transparent, evidence-based justification for weakening of FNU and the rise of some other institution, they cannot support these amendments.

While supporting the Bill, Government MP Professor Biman Prasad called out Usamate and Nand, saying Usamate is trying to mislead when he was talking about the budget of the university.

Professor Prasad says the government provides up to $153 million in TSLS scholarship, and a big chunk of that goes to the university.

He says in the case of FNU, every single cent that is spent on every single student that goes to the FNU is an income, and Usamate did not add that, as he was just looking at the budget.

While also supporting the amendment, Acting Attorney General Siromi Turaga says this realignment strengthens the collaboration between the university and government ministries, and the private sector. 

Turaga says the move reflects the whole government approach to strengthening our education system and ensuring that institutions such as FNU are fully supported to deliver quality education and training. 

He says aligning FNU under the Prime Minister or another minister reflects the government’s commitment to education, noting similar oversight arrangements exist at universities in countries like Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia and Singapore.

However Usamate rejected the comparison to Singapore highlighting that the Council members of University of Singapore are appointed by the Minister for Education.